RUAG Space
| RUAG Space
|
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|---|---|
 |
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| legal form | Business area |
| Seat | Zurich , Switzerland |
| management | Luis León de Chardel (Executive Vice President ad interim) |
| Number of employees | 1265 (2019) |
| sales | 339 million CHF (2019) |
| Branch | Space industry |
| Website | www.ruag.com |
RUAG Space is the space division of the Swiss technology group RUAG . RUAG Space employs around 1265 people at thirteen locations in Switzerland , Sweden , Germany , Finland , the USA and Austria and achieved sales of around 340 million Swiss francs in 2019.
The headquarters of RUAG's space activities are in Zurich Seebach , the former headquarters of Oerlikon Space, which was taken over by RUAG in July 2009.
history
Oerlikon Contraves, Contraves Space, Oerlikon Space
From 1964 the company Oerlikon Contraves was active in the space sector. At that time, the European Space Research Organization (ESRO) commissioned the company to develop the structure, mechanics and thermal system for their research satellite ESRO-1. When the European Launcher Development Organization (ELDO) and ESRO joined forces in the 1970s to jointly develop the Ariane carrier , Contraves was commissioned to build the payload fairing. Since then, Contraves has supplied over 160 different generations of payload fairings for the Ariane family.
In 1999 the space division of Oerlikon Contraves was made legally independent as Contraves Space , but remained a subsidiary of Oerlikon-Bührle Holding, renamed Unaxis Holding. In the course of the renewed restructuring of Unaxis, including the name change to OC Oerlikon Corporation, Contraves Space was given the name Oerlikon Space in December 2006 .
In June 2009 Oerlikon Space AG was taken over by the defense and technology group RUAG and renamed RUAG Space AG at the end of June 2009. RUAG Space AG no longer exists.
RUAG
RUAG's aerospace activities had their roots in Emmen, where the company had carried out the final assembly of payload fairings for Ariane rockets as a subcontractor to Oerlikon Contraves since the late 1970s . RUAG has continuously expanded its space business, primarily through acquisitions. Initially, the Swiss state-owned company took over the Swiss companies Mecanex (Nyon) and HTS (Wallisellen). In 2008, RUAG acquired the Swedish SAAB Space and its subsidiary Austrian Aerospace . Finally, in 2009, RUAG bought the largest Swiss space company to date, Oerlikon Space AG.
RUAG Space
In the following years, RUAG expanded further, and in 2015 a location was added in Finland. In the same year, RUAG Space also expanded in the USA. In 2016, HTS GmbH in Coswig near Dresden was incorporated into RUAG as a location in Germany, whereupon the rebranding to RUAG Space Germany took place in 2018.
Company structure and locations
RUAG Space is a division of the Swiss technology group RUAG with locations in Switzerland, Sweden, Finland, Germany, the USA and Austria.
The Swiss space activities are part of RUAG Schweiz AG, a subsidiary of RUAG Holding AG. The approx. 500 employees (January 2019) work in Zurich , Emmen and Nyon .
The Swedish company RUAG Space AB is also a subsidiary of RUAG Holding AG. Approx. 300 employees (January 2019) work in Gothenburg , around 120 in Linköping .
The Austrian company RUAG Space GmbH is in turn a subsidiary of the Swedish RUAG Space AB. In 2018, around 250 employees worked at the two locations in Vienna and Berndorf .
The Finnish company RUAG Space Finland is also a subsidiary of the Swedish RUAG Space AB and has around 40 employees working in Tampere (January 2019).
RUAG Space USA has been one of the locations, which is a subsidiary of RUAG Holding AG, since 2015. With locations in Decatur, Alabama ; Titusville , Florida; and Denver (Centennial) , Colorado, it has 105 employees (August 2018).
The German company RUAG Space Germany GmbH, like the locations in the USA and Sweden, is a direct subsidiary of RUAG Holding AG and employs around 40 people in its Coswig location (January 2019).
Products and services
RUAG Space's core business is the development and manufacture of assemblies for satellites and launch vehicles . RUAG Space, as one of the RUAG divisions, is divided into three product groups : Electronics, Launchers and Spacecraft.
Services (Zurich location):
- Environmental testing - these include: vibration tests, shock tests (including pyro-shock tests), climate tests, acceleration tests with a centrifuge, drop tests
- Material tests
- Structural tests
RUAG Space has been involved in many European space missions, including Herschel , Planck , SMOS , BepiColombo , Galileo , Solar Orbiter and ATV and a well-known supplier for the launch vehicles Ariane 5, VEGA and ATLAS.
RUAG Space also offers some special products such as slip rings or thermal insulation for applications outside of space travel.
Product groups
The Electronics product group includes space electronics. These include computers for satellites and launch vehicles, (GPS) navigation receivers and signal processors, power and drive electronics, microwave electronics and antennas.
The Launchers product group manufactures the tip of launch vehicles , known as payload fairings. In addition to these, separation adapters and separation dispensers are also manufactured as well as control systems for sounding rockets.
The Spacecraft product group contains amechanical and thermal space products. This includes the structural components of the satellites, mechanisms of satellites, the equipment for mechanical ground support equipment (MGSE), slip rings for data transmission, as well as thermal insulation ( MLI - Multi Layer Insulation ) and heaters.
Payload fairings
Well-known RUAG products are the payload fairings, which are manufactured by Arianespace , for example, for the Ariane launcher family . RUAG Space is also supplying the payload fairing for the Vega launcher, which has also been launched by Kourou since 2012. The American Atlas V (500 series) from United Launch Alliance and its successor, Vulcan, are also fitted with panels from RUAG Space. The Atlas cladding is up to 26 meters long.
The construction is a sandwich with a core made of aluminum honeycomb , which is bonded to cover layers made of carbon fiber reinforced plastic . It is baked (hardened) in an autoclave at 50 to 250 ° C, covered with cork mats and painted.
The fairing protects the payload during the launch phase from damage caused by the enormous noise and aerodynamic pressure and is blown off the rocket fuselage during the propulsion phase in order to enable the satellite (s) to be released.
Flight computer
Flight computers are the "brains" of satellites and rockets. Among other things, ESA missions are supplied with hardware from RUAG Space here. The flight computer that monitors and controls the launch and flight of the Ariane 5 rocket is also from RUAG.
Thermal protection
Thermal insulation from RUAG Space is designed to protect satellites from the heat and cold in space. Thermal protection is mainly implemented using two technologies. One is thermal insulation films, i.e. a protective cover made of many layers of special films. The other is the reflection of radiation and light with highly reflective mirrors (OSR - Optical Solar Reflectors). The most common are gold foils, which make satellites look like a chocolate wrapped in gold.
The thermal insulation is not used exclusively in space, but z. B. also in medicine, where it shields the cooling of the magnets in MRI instruments.
Web links
- Website RUAG Space (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Annual Report 2018 of the RUAG Group (PDF)
- ↑ The business year of the divisions | Annual Report 2019. Retrieved May 18, 2020 .
- ↑ RUAG Space, Zurich ( Memento of July 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (English); accessed February 22, 2013
- ↑ RUAG Space AG at Moneyhouse, accessed on October 7, 2019.
- ↑ RUAG Space Austria: Berndorf's way into distant worlds . NÖN.at, August 11, 2018.
- ↑ Hendrik Thielemann: Blown up in space - Swiss cutting-edge technology for Europe's space missiles. In: Franz Betschon , Stefan Betschon, Willy Schlachter (eds.): Engineers build Switzerland. First-hand history of technology. Volume 2. Verlag Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Zurich 2014, ISBN 978-3-03823-912-3 , pp. 56–62